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Alan Friedman
Alan Friedman
Look at the stunning results Astrophotographer Alan Friedman produced from his backyard in Buffalo, N.Y., when he put a webcam and a telescope together in front of a high-end filter.
Using a specialized hydrogen alpha filter, Friedman is able to look at the deep red end of the light spectrum and capture the action of hydrogen gas in the atmosphere of the sun using an industrial webcam.
To produce the finished images you see above, he captures video, finds the best individual frames, then merges the images together through a method called stacking. The exposure of the merged image is balanced for the prominences and the surface of the sun, and then the image is colorized.
He describes the process as really complicated because there is a huge range of brightness to account for with the sun.
Friedman, who is a greeting card publisher, pursues astrophotography in his spare time. You can see some more of Alan's work on his WEBSITE and you can listen to Alan talk about his images and see his telescope setup in this video:
Previously on Photoblog: $45 cameras capture stunning images of earth from above
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These are stunning views of our star. More global and comprehensible than others I've seen. Wow!
That is pretty cool, but just how 'amateur' is amateur? I'd wager his telescope, camera, + the filter need to produce these shots isn't cheap. I guess maybe the amateur title is given to anyone that isn't in the employ of the government or a college/university?
All that aside, AWESOME Photos!!!
Notice that some of this was his equipment, but a lot of this was due to the time he spent after the shots were taken by stacking and finishing the shots. Probably over 90% of astonomy takes place before and after the actual image is gathered; preping for the shot then pouring over that data once you have the shot.
I don't know what type of telescope he used but a really good telescope can be had for fairly good prices these days. The H-a filter can run from $250 to $15,000 depending on quality and size. So overall a person could set up their own similar rig for under $1000 pretty easily. And I don't really think he's as amateur as he once was, clearly. He may not have gone to school for this stuff and he may not have a government grant paying for it but he clearly knows what he's doing.
Great picture. I've had the image (the whole sun image) as my desktop background since MSNBC ran an article last week that provided a link to Friedman's images.
It refers to the fact that he does this as a hobby and may have less than professional level training or aspirations and doesn't derive the majority of his income from photography, if any.
He is an amateur because he is not in the business of making money. Be honest, I've seen great picture (not astrophotograph) from tons of amateur. Sometimes even better than professional. There is no difference between an amateur and a professional photographer now a day in term of picture quality. With the internet providing the know how and the ability to take tons of digital picture for testing has greatly evaporated the notion of amateur and professional in term of picture quality.
BTW.... extremely beautiful picture. It almost look like a painting.
"amateur" sure doesnt mean "sloppy" in this case. You got skills dude!!
The Sun is a very interesting target for amateurs. The cost of equipment is within reason and the software to process the images is readily available at reasonable cost.
A lot of astronomical discoveries are made by amateurs and the professional astronomer community has relied more and more on their work.
The Sun is also a very dangerous object and it should be given a lot more investigative effort, namely in Solar Wind/Storm activities. A large Solar flare (Coronal Mass Ejection) in 1989 brought down the Quebec power grid. The Great Solar Storm of 1859, the largest CME in recorded history, caused havoc in Europe and North America, burning down telegraph lines.
Those are some incredible pictures! I have never seen pictures like those before with such detail. If we can take pictures of the sun that show such detail, and it is so much further than the moon and Mars- why can't we take super-closeups of Mars and the Moon?
They do take up close picture of the Moon & Mars.
Good Job Alan Friedman!
Answers: 1) Because the Sun is about 100 times the diameter of the Earth. 2) There are exquisite detailed maps and photos of the Moon available. 3) Mars is about 1/2 the size of the Earth and is, approximately, 49 million miles away. So, you're trying to get detail of something 200 times smaller than the Sun, at about half the distance, using reflected light from a source 142 million miles from Mars.
Beautiful shots by Alan Friedman. Makes me long for my long lost telescope.
We can, and we do nightly. The Moon is a very easy target with Earth based imaging resolutions down to a couple hundred meters. Google "Mars images from earth" and you will see a myriad of images for all of the planets out to Neptune that show significant detail. Some of them were taken by amateurs.
Congrats Alan! Those are absolutely stunning images on here and your website.
The raw images are surely great but Friedman's postprocessing isn't doing them good, IMHO: He inverts (i.e. turns into negative) the features on the disk while leaving the features at the edge (prominences) in positive - these aren't true astronomical photographs anymore. (And indeed he's selling these pictures as works of art!) From a pure photography point of view this procedure is unnecessary, though: H-Alpha images displayed with one well-chosen - positive! - look-up table are actually more beautiful (check them out on numerous other websites), especially when you've seen the H-Alpha Sun with your own eyes in such a telescope.
Thanks Daniel. Seems there's always one detractor. Why not just complement Mr. Freidman and let the rest of us know where better pics are. So what if he sells pics as art. I see pics of nature for sell all the time that have been enhanced or processed. As in most things, there is always someone doing it better. Perhaps its that Friedman got mention on this site and you didn't.
A link to some fairly interesting images of the sun (and others if you navigate around) http://www.acatterall.com/Sun%20images.htm
Daniel Fischer "IMHO: He inverts (i.e. turns into negative) the features on the disk while leaving the features at the edge (prominences) in positive"
I'm no expert, trust me. As a matter of fact, I sometimes have to snap 10 pictures of the same thing to get one or two good ones, lol.
However, I'm just curious. Could it be that he inverted because the images were extremely bright and this inversion allowed us to actually be able to look at the photo?
I'm just asking in case anyone there can professionally tell me if that would even be necessary?
As for the artist, I sell some of my AMATEUR images as art as well. You can do some pretty awesome things digitally, to photographs these days.
Great pictures Alan Friedman!!
Those are the best photos I've ever seen of the sun, it would be so cool to put them on posters and hang them from a wall,
Just fabulous pictures. Thank you Mr. Friedman - for your "hobby." I agree with Buddy - these are very suitable for posters or even framing.
Remarkable images, much appreciated Daniel Friedman. The Sun is still a huge mystery, and these
shed some light on the make up, pun intended. Way Cool! Thnks, keep them coming.
to clarify, his first name is Alan.
Indeed, wonderful pictures!
Excellant photo!
Absolutely stunning.
Who cares how amateur he is... WOW is all I can say!
American Ingenuity! ..........Great Shots! Never seen anything like them.
Being an "amateur" only means that someone does something for love, rather than money. Amateur does NOT have to be unsophisticated.
Excellent work. Three sunspots show clearly in the smaller image. Definitely worth the effort.
Awesome pictures! Isn't our universe totally fantastic? Mind boggling!
These pictures rival or maybe surpass NASA photos at what fraction of the cost?
With so many Americans TODAY ( 11/2/10) talking about deficit reduction... maybe here, is an opportunity to do just that.
Marvellous - Amazing !
Outstanding photos!
in regard to the amateur status of the photographer, it has been said before and is correct that he is and will stay till he starts to accept money for the pictures.
Nice Shot. Here is my favorite place for photos - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
Always something new everyday
Very nice photos. Since a webcam was used, it would also be interesting to see a video using this technique.
Fantastic work ! Well done ! Funny thing though............With the billions that Nasa has waste........errrr spent over the years. I don't E V E R recall seeing pictures of this quality of the sun. And all this fella did, was to take off the shelf technology............Oh yeah.
Then he went into his backyard.........Hmmmm.....Makes you wonder, eh ? Still though. . . . .GREAT JOB ALAN !
Freaking... Awesome... Dude!!! Well Done!